Baking for Nihilists

South African Buttermilk and Rye Rusks

One of my most long standing hobbies is the careful dipping of things into tea. There are a lot of things worth dipping, but if you are to dip only one thing in your life I would recommend the South African rusk .

These are made using the stanard South African recipe, with a few modifications (modifications that I consider to be rather chic). I made these with Rye Flour and only a little sugar (they were only just sweet) so that I could start dipping them first thing in the morning (for breakfast). You can and should add more sugar if you prefer to get your dipping done later in the day (when one’s resolve to be healthy has eroded away)

You can also add all kinds of unpleasant things to these rye flour, buttermilk rusks (like seeds and dried fruit). I really wish you wouldn’t. But you probably will, won’t you?

Ingredients:

500g Rye Flour

7 tsp ( 35ml) Baking Powder

1/4 cup Milk

2 Eggs

250ml Buttermilk

250g Butter (melted)

1/2 tsp Salt

1/2 cup to 3/4 cup Sugar

Method:

Preheat oven to 180 C

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a large bowl. Add the sugar and then stir through with a whisk to make sure everything is evenly distributed.

Beat the eggs and then mix in the buttermilk and milk. Add the melted and cooled butter to the egg, milk and buttermilk.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients (along with any nuts and seeds you would like to add- about 1/2 cup’s worth). Mix until just combined.

Move the mixture to a greased baking tin (they will rise a little so make sure it is big enough to allow for this).

Bake for about an 50 min (until they are lovely and brown). You don’t need to worry about over-baking them- they are going to be dry! Just don’t let them burn.

Let them cool in the tin and then cut the rusks into a rectangular shape, using intersecting rows and columns across the top of the tin. Place the cut rusks onto a baking trays (with as much of their surface area exposed as possible). Dry in the oven at about 80 C (leaving the oven door slightly open so that the moisture can evaporate. This will take about 4 hours. Store in an air-tight container and serve with a dipping drink.